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The Regime Shifts DataBase provides examples of different types of regime shifts that have been documented in social-ecological systems. The database focuses specifically on regime shifts that have large impacts on ecosystem services, and therefore on human well-being.

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A regime shift occurred on the west coast of Svalbard in 1996 and 2000; the former Arctic benthos was mainly constituted by red calcareous algae and filter feeders whereas the present subarctic benthos is dominated by macroalgae. The main drivers of this shift are increases in sea surface temperature and inflow of light that are both due to global warming and changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Changes in benthos could impact other trophic levels, potentially affecting commercial fisherie...

Thermokarst lake dominated landscapes are transforming into terrestrial ecosystems (e.g.: tundra). There is a natural fluctuation between these two ecosystems. However, the rate and scale at which those fluctuations are occurring are increasing due to permafrost melting caused by the increasing atmospheric temperatures associated with climate change. Warmer air temperature increases soil temperature, which melts permafrost (permanently frozen soils found in Arctic regions). The shift in ecosyste...

The regime shift is the boreal forest, where the coniferous dominated forest is slowly being replaced by deciduous trees due to recent climate warming and changes in the wildfire regime. Coniferous trees thrive in cold, moist soil conditions, and enhance these conditions by accumulating a deep soil organic layer. The moisture of the soil prevents frequent fires from occurring, but when they do, the soil organic layer is rarely consumed in its entirety due to the high water content (Johnsto...

A characteristic regime shift in aquatic systems involves an abrupt increase in the dominance of lower trophic level groups within aquatic food webs. This regime shift involves a change from an ecosystem with high numbers of predatory fish to one dominated by pelagic planktivores. The shift is often initiated by high fishing pressure on top-predators followed by a trophic cascade, but can also be brought about by other environmental factors like global warming and upwellings increase. In extreme...

A fishery collapses when the structure of the marine community (i.e. its species composition) changes radically, trapping the fishery into a regime in which high-valued commercial species cannot recover. These dynamics are often characterized by cascading effects across multiple trophic levels in marine food webs. Both top-down and bottom-up drivers contribute to the collapse of commercial fisheries. Overfishing is the main top-down driver, and is associated with indirect drivers that maintain f...